Three Easy Ways to Nurture A Child’s Brain Development | Dana Suskind MD

World-class pediatric surgeon, social scientist, and best-selling author Dr Dana Suskind MD talks about the Three T’s (tune in, talk more and take turns) that parents can do to nurture their children’s brain development and the key ways that society needs to change to invest in the next generation.

Dana is the founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning & Public Health, and Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics at the University of Chicago. She is also the director of the Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program, and is recognized as a national thought leader in early language development. Her research is dedicated to optimizing foundational brain development and preventing early cognitive disparities and their lifelong impact. Honestly, when she talks about raising kids…we need to listen.

Most recently, Dana has released a fantastic new book detailing the powerful blueprint that society should be taking to meet the developmental needs of all children. We talk more with Dana about why she wrote Parent Nation: Unlocking Every Child’s Potential, Fulfilling Society’s Promise and how the status quo for parenting in America is not serving parents and children well.

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Topics

(4:58) Welcome and speed round questions.

(9:25) How has American individualism influenced the way we parent our children?

(13:05) How significant is the lack of parental leave in the US?

(17:37) Internalizing parental guilt.

(19:28) Reframing your self talk around raising your kids.

(21:17) The influence of the pandemic on parenting.

(25:19) What has been the impact of the pandemic on children?

(27:28) Why language is so important to early development.

(30:20) The 3 Ts of foundational brain development.

(31:56) The personal trauma that influenced Dana’s writing.

(34:19) What positive support systems are there to help parents?

(39:31) Dana’s ambition to write behavioral economics music!

(41:26) Grooving Session discussing Parent Nation.

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